"Inflation: Crowding Out The Real Economy"

"Inflation: Crowding Out The Real Economy"

by John Wilder

“You don't? Well, you don't have to understand what it eh, it eh... It was printed in eh... Washington. Well, and when they print something in Washington, they know what it means.”

 – Green Acres

"Like the beginning of a movie starring Will Smith as Winnie the Pooh, Amy Schumer as Piglet, and Mitt “Mittens” Romney as Christopher Robin, you know one thing: the pain is only starting. The pain I’m speaking of is inflation, though. I’d love to be the bearer of happy news. I’d love to say, “Nah, as soon as things straighten out in (spins wheel) China West Taiwan, things will be better. Nope.

Let me explain. The Federal Government is really good at exactly two things, and one of them is spending money. Since they already donated a few billion bucks worth of stuff to the Taliban, they decided to go for a few trillion to everyone who was breathing. The spending has been amazing, and it has created the expected result: inflation. It’s not done, though.

As I said, the Federal Government is good at spending money, but it’s slow at spending money. Although it looks like the Federal Government is just willy-nilly stuffing the money it just printed into the mouths of anyone nearby, it’s much more complicated than that.

First, a bureaucrat has to invent the program. And that means? Paperwork. That has to be reviewed and approved. And every buzzword of sustainable and underserved and economic equity has to be mashed into the program and form. Once complete? The program has to be announced, and various states, counties, alternative bands, and alternative energy providers then pounce on the paperwork to ask for buckets of cash. Biden’s grants for free crack pipes won’t figure out what communities they need to go to by themselves!

This process takes months. Then, once awarded, people need to order the crack pipes from China Terra Haute. Why not China? This is the Federal Government, and we know it is charged with protecting the American Crackpipe Maker Equalitarian Sisterhood (ACMES). So, all the crack pipe materials will be locally sourced from approved Wiccans. If it stopped at crack pipes, it would be fine, probably. But it’s not just that. It’s concrete for a burst of road construction. It’s rebar for the concrete. It’s plywood for the forms.

There was already price pressure on almost everything. Now that some of the largest steel (around 100 million tons of production) works in the world are shut down or sanctioned due to Vlad’s Spring Vacation, (not to mention fuel costs shooting up higher than a T-72 turret) that rebar is now much more expensive.

If that were the only problem, these sort of crushing cost increases would probably be something that we could live with. But whenever the government wants to buy a cubic yard of concrete to make a new office to process paperwork for Build Back Better Bux applications, well, that increases the cost. For everyone.

It makes the cost of building or expanding a business higher, unpredictable, and perhaps unattainable. Government spending – trillions of dollars of government spending that came from money that was simply wished into existence – crowds out private spending. That means the new Pizza Hut® can’t be built because concrete is too expensive. That means the new PEZ™ factory can’t be built to keep up with the PEZ© demand because steel for the machinery costs too much. The alternatives that create a productive economy are walled off due to increased costs.

So, it’s happening now. A little.

I’m telling you now, the big waves of Fed.Gov spending have yet to hit. Hundreds of millions of dollars more than the usual printing are hitting the economy – each month. The pressure from printing has yet to stop. It has yet to slow. It is still increasing.

The economy of every country that hyperinflated did so because of one simple reason: the leadership seemed to not understand that printing didn’t lead to prosperity. They had some sort of belief that money was a magical totem so that they could print more, and people would be happy. In small quantities, it works. Home prices go up. Prices go up. People who save (as always) are the ones that get burned as their saved cash lowers in value.

Germany hyperinflated in the 1920s because they wanted to print cash. Lots of it. They didn’t have the good fortune to be able to create all they wanted with computers and the press of a button, so they had to hyperinflate the old-fashioned way: printing. How bad did it get? They managed to double the capacity of the printing press by only printing on one side.

I bet we can match that: I bet we can start making electronic money with only four bits per byte. I guess I can be the bearer of glad tidings and report there is good news, though: We don’t have to watch a movie starring Will Smith as Winnie the Pooh, Amy Schumer as Piglet, and Mitt “Mittens” Romney as Christopher Robin. We’ve got that going for us."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/author/jwilder/

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Related:

"Inflation Surges, a Recession Is Coming   Here; Global Cost Of 

Refinancing Bonds Climbs To Highest Since 2009… Banks Are F*cked"

"These are Scary Times - The Fed Has Lost Control of It All"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 4/13/22:

"These are Scary Times - 

The Fed Has Lost Control of It All"

"Nothing that we are being told in the economy is real. These are very scary times. The Fed has control of nothing. Inflation is at a 40 year high. This will continue to get worse."

Gregory Mannarino, "Producer Prices Balloon At The Fastest Pace On Record! Gundlach Warns: 'Calamity' In The Markets"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/13/22:

"Producer Prices Balloon At The Fastest Pace On Record!

 Gundlach Warns: 'Calamity' In The Markets"

 - https://traderschoice.net/

○

"Calamity" he says... Folks, this is only the very first movements of the avalanche. Or if you prefer, the massive $2.5 QUADRILLION derivatives tidal wave these psychopaths have created in their insanely infinite greed. Without intending melodrama, in my humble opinion tragically the entire global economy, including very definitely us, will look and feel very much like this video metaphor... As always, make your own informed decisions about truth, but in any case, prepare yourselves...

Full screen recommended.

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Zero Degrees Zero"

Liquid Mind, "Zero Degrees Zero"

Gerald Celente, "China Started Covid War, We've All Been Shanghaied"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 4/12/22:

"China Started Covid War, We've All Been Shanghaied"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"Virtue Signaling v. Billions in Cash"

"Virtue Signaling v. Billions in Cash"

by Addison Wiggin

“The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that when nations are strong they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are often no longer strong.”


– Winston Churchill

"We left off yesterday asking a simple question: why are Western companies banning the shipment of Nikes, Big Macs and Legos to Russia, when Ukrainian energy companies are still making billions from “transport fees” as Russian gas passes through the countries’ pipelines?

Our Daily Proof phrases the question in another way: "Are there any winners in the sanctions war? Yes, Ukraine. The natural gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe pass through Ukraine. Those pipelines are running at full capacity. When natural gas moves from Russia through Ukrainian pipelines, Ukraine charges a transit fee. Those fees run about $2 billion per year. Russia is still paying them and Ukraine still collects."

The mainstream narrative has been so dialed-in on the atrocities of the war… and the efforts of celebrities to raise money for Ukrainian refugee relief… the root cause of the war is only now gaining some ink. “Russia's Gazprom continues gas exports to Europe via Ukraine,” says Reuters. “Ukraine’s pipelines are still carrying Russian gas to Europe,” says a more expansive piece in the Washington Post. “Ukraine Demands Everyone Else Boycott Russia While Making Billions From Russian Gas,” reads the Front Page Magazine.

Seems like a revelation. Injustice. A travesty. Oh, how the Enlightened Elite Establishment (EEE) must be enraged. Or are they? It is rather entertaining, we have to admit, watching them funambulate their way around “moral outrage” and the reality of the global energy and food markets.

“Despite mainstream financial media’s portrayal of the war as a geopolitical phenomenon,” comments James West, our Wiggin Sessions guest, “where Vladimir Putin is trying to reunite Russian Federation from before the wall came down, this is completely erroneous and false and fails to look at the real issue.”

Mr. West continues, rather animated: "Ukraine has over two trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves offshore. And if they were to bring those reserves online, it would completely destroy Russia's monopoly on natural gas supply to Europe. Russia relies on energy exports for 40% of its trade. And so that is the main thing that is making Vladimir Putin say, "At all costs, I cannot afford to let Ukraine bring those two trillion cubic feet of natural gas on stream."

The charts of Ukrainian natural gas routes have been swirling the conflict since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014:

“This war is not about Russia and Ukraine,” West contends. “This war is about control over the energy markets in Europe. It is as much a West versus East scenario and It should be obvious to everyone.” One supposes history will out the players on both sides of the conflict. The Ukrainian oligarchs continue to get paid while the Russians reconcentrate their troops in the Donbas with a new more fearsome general.

“Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma,” West points out. “Burisma is the Ukrainian company that controls all of the energy assets in Ukraine. So there was a process in place for American investment into Ukrainian energy production.” That conduit for American investment is precisely what the Russian army appears to be focussing its attention on right now: control the Eastern part of Ukraine and Black Sea ports like Odessa and Sevastopol and you control the Ukrainian flow of gas.

If you’re following along in other political venues Hunter Biden’s laptop has been a hot potato involving other incriminating details that is not the purview of this piece. Rather, we’re more interested in the real impact of war on energy and food prices. And on the inflationary trend in commodities they are exacerbating.

What effect has the war over natural gas had on the commodity price index? The price you pay for everything from gas, to bread and cheetos is going up. The inflationary psychosis is about to get real. And as we detailed ad nauseam last week, the Fed is effectively out of creative ways to combat it.

“Russia is the largest exporter of wheat in the world,” James West contends. “We've seen the price of wheat skyrocket, but wheat only plays only a small contribution to the overall price action in the CRB index. Russia's a big exporter of oil and gas. Forty percent of its exports are energy. And so that's had an effect on the price of oil and gas.”

Combined, that's causing the commodities index (CRB) to soar. “Right now,” James is suggesting we pay attention. “The CRB index is screaming ”imminent financial mayhem." Check out James’ full review of commodities in "Global Commodities In A Time of War, Broken Supply Chains and Epic Inflation"… including copper, lithium, gold and silver… right here.

- WigginSessions@email.5minforecast.com

"Credit Card Crisis; Inflation Scorches The Middle Class; Buy Real Things; Debt Slaves Will Lose"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, PM 4/12/22:

"Credit Card Crisis; Inflation Scorches The Middle Class; 

Buy Real Things; Debt Slaves Will Lose"

"Not One Man In A Million...:

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security but [also] at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.

Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires, become "profiteers," who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

- John Maynard Keynes, "The Economic Consequences of the Peace"

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Freely download "The Economic Consequences of the Peace", 

by John Maynard Keynes, here:

- https://archive.org/details/economicconseque00keyn

"You Just Got Robbed!"

"You Just Got Robbed!"

by Brian Maher

"Assume - for the moment - that yours is the standard American household. How much money did inflation steal from you in March? The answer, the distressing answer, shortly. First the news…March inflation data came issuing this morning. They represented the greatest annual inflationary jump since December 1981 - an 8.5% escalation.

The New York Post gives the particulars: "Labor Department officials said price increases for gasoline, shelter and food were the largest contributors to inflation. The gasoline price index rose 18.3% in March. Excluding volatile food and gas prices, the CPI still rose 6.5% year over year." Used auto prices declined 3.8% in March. Inflation would have run higher yet absent their tugging. How did the stock market take this morning’s news? Initially well… then poorly.

Hope! Monthly core CPI - that is, subtracting food and energy - came in below consensus guessings. A Dow Jones survey of economists had forecast a 0.5% March jump. The reported figure came in at 0.3%. Mr. Market is a very hopeful fellow. Against billowing gray backdrops he strains his eyes… in quest of silver linings: Perhaps the below-consensus CPI print means the Federal Reserve won’t raise rates so aggressively. A less-aggressive Fed is good for me. I require low rates to keep me going.”

And so the Dow Jones was up and away 361 points this morning. Both the S&P and Nasdaq each glided higher on identical hopes. Then Federal Reserve grandee Lael Brainard reached for her skeet gun…

Dashed Hope: She claimed she and her mates plan to increase rates “expeditiously.” An expeditious increase implies a 50-basis-point May hike - with perhaps more 50-basis-point jackings to follow. Accordingly, the market presently gives 97% odds of a 50-basis-point May hike. Those same odds had previously read 92%.

Ms. Brainard added that partial balance sheet demolition could commence “as soon as May, which would lead to reductions in that balance sheet starting in June.” The lady’s aim was true. And so stocks careened earthward this afternoon. The Dow Jones lost 87 wing-clipped points by trading’s end. The S&P 500 ended the day down 15 points; the Nasdaq Composite down 40. The 10-year Treasury yield retreated slightly. Gold, meantime, caught a lovely gust - up $13 and change.

Truth Hurts: Let us sketch the inflationary scene in colors darker yet… On rare occasions, we are buoyed by some scrap of positive news. Thus our spirit sings and our heart crowds with joy. These are invariably moments of great concern. That is because they heave our internal settings into vast discombobulation.

To restore our natural equilibrium we turn to Mr. John Williams and his ShadowStats site. They restore - unfailingly - our disfaith in this world. He gives the ice-cold facts, the hard facts. His stated purpose is to expose and analyze “flaws in current U.S. government economic data and reporting.” Thus this Williams fellow scatters the statistical fogs that government throws up to conceal true inflation.

The True Inflation Rate: The official rate runs to 8.5%, it is true. Yet from Mr. Williams, we learn: "If government number-manglers gauged inflation as they did in 1990, the true inflation rate approaches 14%." And if they gauged inflation by 1980’s rules? Consumer inflation approaches a dollar-devouring 17%. Perhaps Mr. Williams miscalculates the figures to some extent. We do not know if he gives a precisely true number. Yet experience informs us he is nearer to bull’s-eye than the number-manglers within the United States government.

The Invisible Tax: Inflation is a supremely skillful pickpocket. It is justly and aptly named the invisible thief. It is a cat burglar on tiptoe. Inflation is also the invisible tax. The administration may sob about inflation. Yet it cries the crocodile’s tears. It is inwardly pleased with the haul it is taking in… silently and invisibly… beneath public awareness.

As Jim Rickards notes often in these pages, inflation is the only escape for a government as deeply indebted as ours. From a recent reckoning: "The national debt is $30 trillion. A $30 trillion debt would not be a serious issue if we had a $50 trillion economy. But we don’t have a $50 trillion economy. We have about a $21 trillion economy, which means our debt is bigger than our economy…"

The debt is unmanageable without inflation. Inflation favors debtors because they get to pay back the debt with depreciating dollars. It’s easier to pay down debt because you’re paying back debt with dollars that are less valuable than when you originally borrowed them. So inflation eases the real value of debt.

On the other hand, deflation increases the real value of debt. With deflation, the value of money increases, making it more burdensome to pay off debt. This is why debtors hate deflation. Thus we might further label inflation the scoundrel’s tax. And what is government but a gang of scoundrels?

How Much Money Did Inflation Steal From You in March? Let us return then to our opening question: How much money did inflation steal from you in March? Again, the question assumes yours is the standard American household. If it is, what is the answer? How much money did inflation lift from your pocket last month?

Mr. Ryan Sweet is a senior economist with Moody’s Analytics. Here the New York Post gives Sweet’s sour answer: "The average U.S. household spent an extra $327 in March due to inflation… That’s up from roughly $297 per household in February, when the consumer price index jumped 7.9%." Three hundred twenty-seven dollars! The average American wage earner collars $32 per hour of labor. Thus he toiled over 10 additional hours in March to acquire his staples - more than one entire workday.

Don’t Forget About Taxes: And that $32 wage - we must inform you - fails to account for taxation. Assume a man labors the standard eight hours. His $32 hourly wage yields him $256 when the whistle blows. Yet the tax man clips him for $36. Our poor fellow is left with $220. He must therefore labor even longer to keep steady with inflation.

Is this justice? The liver and lights within us say it is not justice. It is injustice. This fellow is sore beset. He must jog faster and faster to merely stand still. Yet what can he do? In his estimation, nothing at all. Thus inflation is not merely the hidden tax. As Milton Friedman once noted… inflation is the “cruelest tax.”

- dailyreckoning.com

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Related:

"Lenin Was Right about the Destructive Power of Inflation"

"15 Facts That Show Rising Prices Are Absolutely Eviscerating America’s Shrinking Middle Class"

Full screen recommended.

"15 Facts That Show Rising Prices Are Absolutely 

Eviscerating America’s Shrinking Middle Class"

by Epic Economist

"The United States used to have the largest and strongest middle class in the entire world... but those times are long gone. Now, the American middle class is rapidly shrinking, and the current economic conditions are accelerating that process even further. We've never seen prices reach stratospheric levels so rapidly, and a series of economic trends show that this is just the beginning. Amid soaring prices for virtually everything, consumer sentiment plunged again last month, hitting its lowest level since August 2011, according to the University of Michigan. At this point, two-thirds of Americans say higher prices have been difficult or even a hardship, and they’re now forcing many to make cutbacks.

According to Laura Wronski, the senior manager of research science at Momentive, “people making six-figure incomes are almost as worried about inflation as people making half as much —and they are just as likely to be taking steps to mitigate its effect on their lives. Inflation is a problem that compounds over time, and even middle and upper-income individuals won’t be insulated from the second and third-order effects of price increases,” she said. A new study by Wells Fargo discovered that the middle class is getting more financially squeezed by rampant prices than any other income group in the United States. And it is going to get “worse before it gets better,” according to Moody’s Analytics. Meanwhile, home prices are absolutely exploding. Over the past two years, they went up by a staggering 32.6%. The latest jump in mortgage rates has effectively put homebuyers in the worst position since 2007.

At the same time, most people are barely scraping by from month to month, and the meteoric rise in the price of consumer goods is certainly not helping matters. And if you think things are bad right now, in a couple of months, they could be a whole lot worse. Even the White House is warning that consumers should brace for some painful price hikes in the coming weeks and months.

It’s getting harder and harder for millions of middle-class families to keep their heads above the water as inflation eats up a larger share of their monthly incomes. That's compromising the purchasing power of hard-working Americans who dedicate their lives to building a comfortable lifestyle. As the price of everything reaches new record-highs, this situation is rapidly becoming unsustainable.

We’re on the verge of another economic recession, and all of the facts we share with you in this video are proof of that. Americans have never experienced so much financial suffering since the 2008 Great Recession and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unfortunately, as we're being told, a lot more pain is ahead, and given that our leaders continue to overlook our worsening problems, we should start doing whatever we can to protect ourselves and our families from the coming chaos because it is crystal clear now that we're on our own. That's why today, we compiled several stats that uncover the distressing effect of soaring prices in the lives of millions of middle-class families all across the country. Here are 15 Facts That Show Rising Prices Are Absolutely Eviscerating America’s Shrinking Middle Class."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Expanding War: With Both Goldman Sachs And Bank of America Warning On The Economy"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/12/22:

"Expanding War: With Both Goldman Sachs

 And Bank of America Warning On The Economy"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "I Am Willing"

Liquid Mind, "I Am Willing"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This false-color composite image views the nearby stellar nursery using data from the Herschel Space Observatory's panoramic exploration of interstellar clouds along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel's far infrared detectors record the emission from the region's cold dust directly.

The famous pillars are included near the center of the scene. While the central group of hot young stars is not apparent at these infrared wavelengths, the stars' radiation and winds carve the shapes within the interstellar clouds. Scattered white spots are denser knots of gas and dust, clumps of material collapsing to form new stars. The Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160728.html

"The World As I See It..."

"The World As I See It:

Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”

by Paul Ratner

“Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.

The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It” gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.

In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity. “What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.

Was Einstein himself religious? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," said Einstein in his 1954 essay on science and religion.

Some (including the scientist himself) have called Einstein’s spiritual views as pantheism, largely influenced by the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Pantheists see God as existing but abstract, equating all of reality with divinity. They also reject a specific personal God or a god that is somehow endowed with human attributes.

Himself a famous atheist, Richard Dawkins calls Einstein's pantheism a “sexed-up atheism,” but other scholars point to the fact that Einstein did seem to believe in a supernatural intelligence that’s beyond the physical world. He referred to it in his writings as “a superior spirit,” “a superior mind” and a “spirit vastly superior to men”. Einstein was possibly a deist, although he was quite familiar with various religious teachings, including a strong knowledge of Jewish religious texts.

In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach: “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”

This theme of liberating the self is also echoed by Einstein later in life, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”

In case you are wondering whether Einstein saw value in material pursuits, here’s him talking about accumulating wealth in 1934, as part of the “The World As I See It”: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?”

- http://bigthink.com/

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Freely download "The World As I See It", by Albert Einstein, here:

- https://www.colonialtours.com/ebook/ebooks/

"At A Time Like This..."

"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced."

- Frederick Douglass

"If Americans Can’t Handle The Stress Now, What Will Happen When Global War Causes The Collapse Of Everything?"

"If Americans Can’t Handle The Stress Now, What Will 

Happen When Global War Causes The Collapse Of Everything?"

by Michael Snyder

"Have you noticed that people are having emotional meltdowns all over the place these days? As a nation, we have become extremely high-strung and we are so easily offended. And for many of us, even the slightest thing can trigger an emotional frenzy that can last for days or even weeks. Obviously, the overall mental health of our nation is not in a good place right now. People are stressed out about inflation, people are stressed out about the widespread shortages that we have been witnessing, people are stressed out about the war in Ukraine, people are stressed out about politics, and people are stressed out about the COVID pandemic that seems as though it will never end. In fact, one recent survey discovered that stress levels are at an all-time high for 63 percent of Americans, and the pandemic is being blamed for that…

Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Cove by Feelmore Labs, the survey found 63 percent of respondents feel their stress levels are currently at an all-time high due to the pandemic. I feel so sorry for those that have worn masks and have been scared to go outside for the past two years. Humans were created to be social creatures, and so isolation can very easily lead to depression.

The same survey that I referenced above also found that stress is having a very real negative impact on many Americans in a variety of ways…"With all of this in mind, 55 percent of respondents agree they’re more burned out now than before the pandemic started. Two out of three of those experiencing burnout say they’re so stressed and burned out that they struggle to focus. In fact, 64 percent feel like nothing can really help them reduce their stress and 58 percent think the healthy coping mechanisms they’ve picked up take too much time out of their day."

All of this stress has created an environment in which people will literally break down over the smallest things. Many of us have become very fragile emotionally, and this appears to be especially true for a lot of our young people.

Let me give you an example. A video of a young woman frantically crying because of a cricket infestation in her home has now been viewed more than 5 million times on TikTok:

😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/xuWhVbgj83

- Rodney Howard-Browne (@rhowardbrowne) April 2, 2022

A lot of people find that video to be extremely humorous, but I find it to be incredibly sad. If we are going to suffer dramatic emotional meltdowns over such small things, what are we going to do when a global war causes a full-blown societal collapse?

Many Americans don’t realize that the U.S. is already deeply involved in World War 3. So far we have sent more than 2 billion dollars worth of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin just told the U.S. Senate that our military is constantly feeding the Ukrainians information about the location and behavior of Russian forces…"Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said publicly for the first time Thursday that the US is providing intelligence to Ukrainian forces to conduct operations in the Donbas region.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Austin was asked whether the US was providing intelligence to help Ukraine carry out attacks against Russian forces in the separatist-controlled Donbas region or Crimea. “We are providing them intelligence to conduct operations in the Donbas, that’s correct,” Austin said in response to the question from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

And as I discussed yesterday, Austin has also admitted that Ukrainian troops are being brought to the United States to be trained to fight the Russians… “This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ukrainian troops training in the U.S. who are returning home to Ukraine today. Their bravery and skill are amazing. I made clear the U.S. will continue to provide them with the assistance they need.”

In addition, a French reporter that just returned from Ukraine is alleging that “Americans are directly in charge of the war on the ground”. French reporter returning from Ukraine "Americans are directly in charge of the war on the ground." 

pic.twitter.com/m5yr7far6N

- no one (@antiwar_soldier) April 11, 2022

I hope that what he is reporting is not true, because it would be evidence that our leaders have completely gone off the deep end. If we are directly involved in the war in Ukraine, that could easily lead to nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia. And a nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia would mean the end of civilization as we know it today.

Meanwhile, tensions between North Korea and South Korea continue to rise. In fact, North Korea just blew up a golf resort that had originally been intended as a “symbol of peace” with South Korea…"North Korea has set off explosives to destroy a golfing resort for tourists that used to be a symbol for peace with neighboring South Korea. Satellite photographs have shown that the floating Haegumgang Hotel, part of the $75million (£57.5million) tourist resort in the mountains of Mount Kumgang, was partially demolished over the weekend."

I am entirely convinced that a conflict between North Korea and South Korea is coming, but I also believe that China will almost certainly invade Taiwan before that happens. And I think that we will probably see a major war erupt in the Middle East before China invades Taiwan. We definitely live during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and what we are witnessing in Ukraine right now is just the tip of the iceberg. Of course the war in Ukraine is already causing a great deal of global instability, and it has made our emerging worldwide food crisis a whole lot worse.

But for now, life in America is still somewhat normal. If people can’t handle life as it is right now, what will they do when everything starts hitting the fan all at once? Unfortunately, the truth is that our society is not emotionally equipped to handle what is ahead of us, and that reality should chill all of us to the core."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com

Aww, pitifully delicate, fragile, spoiled and pampered babies, suffering under such extremely terrible conditions! Crickets, OMG! I feel such utter contempt and disgust sorrow and pity for you! It breaks my heart, breaks my heart I tell you! I lie, no, it does not...

Snyder asks, "If we are going to suffer dramatic emotional meltdowns over such small things, what are we going to do when a global war causes a full-blown societal collapse?" Die...

- CP

"Out Of Control Inflation Is Absolutely Eviscerating America’s Rapidly Shrinking Middle Class"

"Out Of Control Inflation Is Absolutely Eviscerating

 America’s Rapidly Shrinking Middle Class"

by Michael Snyder

"I tried to warn you that the U.S. was going down the exact same path that Venezuela had already traveled. Once upon a time, Venezuela actually had a thriving middle class, but then a horrific inflation spiral came along and destroyed it. Thanks to hyperinflation, just about everyone in Venezuela became millionaires, but just about everyone was also pushed into poverty because the currency was essentially worthless. In order for an economy to thrive, a stable currency is essential, and that is a lesson that our leaders have never learned. Our politicians in Washington just kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, and the “experts” at the Federal Reserve just kept pumping trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system. As a result, we now have way too much money chasing way too few goods and services, and this has caused rampant inflation and widespread shortages.

You know that things are bad when even the White House is warning of “extraordinarily elevated” inflation data, and each month the overall inflation rate just continues to go higher and higher. So how high will it ultimately go? If our leaders continue to recklessly create giant mountains of money out of thin air, will we eventually start to resemble Zimbabwe or the Weimar Republic?

Needless to say, the American people are becoming extremely concerned about this crisis. According to CNBC, consumer expectations for inflation are now at the highest level ever recorded, and a new CBS News poll found that 66 percent of Americans say that higher prices have been “difficult or a hardship” for their families. At this point, just about everyone is feeling the pain. One recent survey discovered that nearly two-thirds of all Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck. So many people that I hear from are just barely scraping by from month to month, and rising inflation is certainly not helping matters.

Just look at what has been happening to home prices. They are up 32.6 percent over the last two years, and it is being estimated that soaring mortgage rates have now priced 9 million homebuyers out of the market…"The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates millions of Americans have been priced out of the housing market since January as sky-rocketing mortgage rates spark an affordability crisis. Nadia Evangelou, a senior economist and head of forecasting at NAR, said 9 million homebuyers had been priced out of the market. Out of that total, about 3 million millennials."

Meanwhile, everything else is becoming a lot more expensive as well. The cost of living is rising much faster than our paychecks are, and Americans are increasingly turning to debt in order to help make ends meet. Unfortunately, the rate at which we are now taking on debt is clearly not sustainable…"Consumer debt rose at the fastest pace in 20 years in February. Total consumer debt rose by $41.8 billion 11.3% in February, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. It was an 11.3% increase year-on-year and the highest rate of growth since November 2001. Analysts had projected a modest $15 billion gain."

And credit card debt is soaring at a particularly alarming pace…"Americans ran up their credit cards at a blistering pace in February. Revolving credit, primarily credit card debt, rose by a whopping 20.7%. American consumers added $18 billion to their credit card bills in February alone. US credit card debt now stands at over $1.06 trillion."

In a highly inflationary environment, families have to continually find larger and larger piles of money just to maintain the same standard of living. Unfortunately, that is a game that most Americans are going to lose.

Meanwhile, the shortages that we have been witnessing around the nation continue to get even worse. For example, one mother says that finding Similac has become “almost a full-time job”…"After she visited three different stores in one day, Elyssa Schmier, the vice president of government relations for advocacy group MomsRising, “all of a sudden realized my formula was nowhere to be found. It’s almost a full-time job trying to find Similac.” After experiencing the nationwide shortage firsthand, Schmier organized an Instagram Live discussion Friday with Brian Dittmeier, who is the senior director of public policy for the National WIC Association.

But on the other side of the globe things are much worse. In fact, one Lebanese official just admitted to CNN that Lebanon is already dealing with an extremely severe food shortage…"A shortage of Russian and Ukrainian farm products, combined with long-term economic instability and inflation, is creating a major food shortage in Lebanon, the minister for trade told CNN this weekend. “In addition to the wheat, we’re having challenges that we’re concerned about two months from today that includes sunflower oil and sugar.”

As I detailed yesterday, we are still only in the very early chapters of this global food crisis. So what will conditions be like six months or a year from now? The entire global system is in the process of melting down, and Gerald Celente is warning that we are literally facing “the greatest financial, socioeconomic, and geopolitical crisis in the history of the world”…

"It’s not business as usual. Do you know what the office occupancy rate in the United States is? 40%. ‘You mean it’s down 60%?’ You go to New York, on the east side, west side, all around the town, for rent, for rent, for rent, for rent, for rent, for rent. So now they are coming out and central banksters are saying they are warning of an inflationary era. Guess what? This is nothing new. Everything they are doing is making a terrible situation worse. We are on the cusp of the greatest financial, socioeconomic, and geopolitical crisis in the history of the world.”

Sadly, he is right on target. Things will get much worse than they are right now, and the nightmare that we are heading toward is going to be far more horrible than most people would dare to imagine. But even though our leaders can now see the consequences of the decisions that they have made, they are just going to keep injecting more money into the system. They literally can’t help themselves, and their self-destructive ways have us on a path that leads to national suicide."

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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Related:

"Headline CPI Came In At 8.5% YoY, This Number Is Such A Lie! 

Real Number Should Be 15% At Least"

"The Fed Is Scared $h*tless"

"Well, It Is Our Fate..."

"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person – one cannot exist in full consciousness – without having to have a showdown with one’s self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in one’s mind what matters and what does not matter.”

- Dorothy Thompson

Bill Bonner, "War on the Patriarchy"

Mountains in Salta, Argentina

"War on the Patriarchy"

by Bill Bonner

San Martin, Argentina - “Patriarchal,” said our friend, describing the curious system of give and take still at work on Argentina’s backward mountain ranches. “Well, yes,” we explained. “We help them… they help us.”

Today, we write more about conflict than cooperation. Both may be inevitable. But one pays. The other doesn’t. America’s sanctions war against Russia, for example. How will it turn out? Will the Russian bear be forced to withdraw, bruised and humbled, so that Americans can rejoice, with their first real win since 1945? Maybe. But more likely, even a victory will hasten the decline of America’s empire, and its dollar-dominated money system.

“Wars also upend the dominance of currencies and serve as a doula to the birth of new monetary systems,” says Zoltan Pozsar, an analyst at Credit Suisse.

Edward Luce in the Financial Times adds: "America has shown its remarkable power to blockade a big economy and target its global elite. Other national elites, who also count westernized kleptocrats in their ranks, are now looking for fallback plans."

China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran… most of the world’s people are not part of America’s sanctions war against Russian. But all have seen what the US can do with its ‘weaponized’ dollar. Now, they’re speeding up efforts to find a replacement. A strong yuan? A gold-backed rouble? A new digital or crypto money? We don’t know; but we don’t doubt they will find something.

Chest Tumors and Wife Beaters: In the meantime, on our mind today, is a different kind of ‘war’… and the grim events taking place in our fight with the ‘originarios…’ right here. Mariela has a tumor in her chest. The public health service is very slow. It will take months before it can take her in. So, she came to us. And last night, we drove her and her family down to “nearby” Molinos …a three-hour drive on dirt roads. From there, she will take a bus to the capital city, where we arranged for her to go to a private clinic. She is to be operated on today. That’s how our “patriarchal” system works.

But of course, there’s always more to the story. Recent rumors told us that Mariela has gone over to the other side – joining the “originarios” in their war against property rights. Still, she asked for our help. And Carlos (one of our workers who drowned last month) was her brother. Another worker is her (common law) husband. The plot thickens…

Mariela recently got a court order prohibiting her husband from visiting, after he allegedly beat her. But last night, the family seemed to be re-united… perhaps by this new health emergency. We took them all, with five family members crowded into the back seat of the truck, to a house owned by Mariela’s sister, where they would wait for the bus. There was another man staying there, a brother, who has also been prohibited from visiting his wife and children. He, too, was accused of wife beating.

“I don’t know,” commented a woman whom we’ve known and trusted for many years. “It is almost like a fad. Women get mad at their husbands. All they have to do is accuse them of violence. Sometimes it is true. Sometimes it is not. But the courts don’t know… and they don’t want to take a chance; so the man is banned from his own family.”

One of the wife beaters asked to speak to us privately. We went into a storeroom. Mattresses were stacked against the wall. A bare light bulb hung from the ceiling, lighting up a rough-cement floor. His grandmother was already there, waiting for us. She is a frail woman in her 80s. She spent almost all her life at a remote “puesto” – an oasis with enough water to support a family – and is hard to understand, because she speaks in a mountain dialect. We sat down on the bench with the grandmother and greeted her warmly; we’ve known her for many years. We’ve never understood a complete sentence from her, but we trust her. And she trusts us. A sister brought mate… a local herb tea.

The grandson wanted to tell us what happened to his dead brother. To bring new readers fully into the picture, we’ve owned a ranch down here in Argentina – in the far Northwest, where it is high and dry – for about 15 years. We’ve gradually learned the language, the culture, the history, ranching, the people and so forth. It’s been a wonderful and exciting adventure. But more than we bargained for.

The scenery is majestic… spectacular. Always something new to see. And always some new problem to reckon with. Yesterday, calves somehow got out of the corral. One wandered into the house.

Stronger Bulls: Some of the problems are ones we can solve. A bigger reservoir, along with drip irrigation, has greatly improved our use of the water. Better bulls have improved the cattle. Solar energy and solar hot water heaters improve our quality of life. But our ‘war’ with the ‘originarios’– like so many of America’s wars – has no upside.

The “originarios” are a group of local people who’ve come to believe that they should have some special rights, thanks to their claim that they are ‘indigenous.’ They are not really any more indigenous than the rest of the population of this area. But a fellow came down from Bolivia a few years ago and showed them that they might enhance their pride, their power, their status and their wealth by proclaiming themselves to be descendants of a long-lost tribe.

In this case, that meant exhuming a tribe that was probably exterminated by Inca invaders some 500 years ago – the Diaguita. The language has been lost. The religion has been forgotten. So have the customs. But the ‘originarios’ reject everything of European origin – except electricity, pick up trucks, medicines, TV, painless dentistry, etc – and claim to restore their ancient Diaguita culture. In the funeral for Carlos, for example, the family avoided the traditional Catholic service. Instead, they invoked ancient rituals.

“I’ve been here all my life,” said a 70-year old, “and I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s customary, when a man dies, to break his horno (an outside clay oven). But they strangled his dog and dropped it into a pit… and then they put his clothes on top of the dog and then threw food and drink into the hole. It was the most barbaric thing I’ve ever seen.”

The ‘tribe’ is mostly made-up. But the idea is attractive. Thanks to reckless legislation in Buenos Aires, intended to protect people who live in a traditional way on traditional tribal lands, they enjoy very un-traditional rules. They live on our farm. But they don’t pay rent. They believe they own the place. They steal our water and our cattle. They burned down two of our remote cabins… and tore up three miles of hose that was used to bring them water.

(Curiously, we had let the ‘originarios’ use the water… and offered them bulls to improve their herds. But they want nothing to do with us… until they actually need us. One young man was accused of killing or neglecting his young son, who died. Our lawyer helped keep him out of jail. Another needed to go to the hospital, in an emergency; we brought out our horses to help bring them out of the mountains.)

We call the police regularly. In one case, the originarios were stealing our water during a drought. Water is precious here. Everybody knows that taking water when it is not your turn is a serious crime. We called the local gendarmes. But word got around that the police were on their way. By the time they arrived, the irrigation canals were all running properly.

Still, early this year, everything seemed to be settling down. And then Carlos died. Drowned. The police ruled it an accident. Nobody thinks it was an accident. Either he was murdered. Or, he committed suicide. And now, his family (who consider the ‘originarios’ little more than scamsters) want us to do something.

“Look, they are trying to take over the valley,” explained the grandson, whispering. “You have to do something. I think they murdered Carlos to get him out of the way. Because they want their people there. Or maybe Carlos found out something…I don’t know… you’ve got to stop these people or they’ll take over the entire ranch.”

Our young friend wants action. It is not fair, he said. It is not right. “You’ve got to do something.”

Blunt Democracy: But what we have discovered is that when the government and the police turn against you (or won’t help) you find you are living in a glass house. And the originarios have plenty of stones. “Let me spell it out for you,” advises another landowner, whose family has been in the valley for hundreds of years. “We are few. They are many. And you are a foreigner. You don’t even have a single vote. That’s democracy for you. It’s where the wolves and the sheep vote on what to have for dinner. And we’re the sheep.

The last thing you want is violence. You can’t win that war. They can sabotage your tractors – easily. They can break your windows. They can open the valves at the reservoir – it’s hours away from the house, up in the mountains – it would flood the fields… and then your grapes would die later when you didn’t have any water.

Yes, they steal cattle. But only a couple a year. They could kill them all. You couldn’t stop them. And what could you do? In the old days, we could get together some of our field hands and run the troublemakers off. Anybody stole water… and their house would be burned down. But today, if you try to do anything on your own, they’ll put you in jail. You have to play by the rules. The ‘originarios’ don’t. All you can do is to sit tight and wait for a change of government.”

The patriarch speaks; baa-aah…"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Killeen, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Free Download: Albert Camus, "The Plague"

"Foolishness has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; they did not believe in plagues."

- Albert Camus, "The Plague"

"'The Plague' is a cultural classic fictional novel written by French author Albert Camus. The novel is originally written in French and named “La Peste”. The novel was initially published in 1947 and was later translated into English and published by Stuart Gilbert as 'The Plague.' The novel covers the unfortunate events and horrific scenes of a plague in Northern Africa in Oran, a city in French Algeria.

The inspiration behind this novel was some plagues that hit Oran before. The stories in the novel are from the choleric epidemic and bubonic plague. The author has shown these epidemics more extreme and deadlier. The book is considered existentialism.

The author describes the plague as a natural equalizer as it has no preferences and no targets. The plague comes and takes everyone with it whether someone is poor, rich, evil, innocent, religious, atheist or anyone else everyone is going with this nature’s marvel. The author emphasizes that despite so much horror, wreckage, and devastation this natural phenomenon teaches or at least makes people survive whether they try or not. The author also discusses the reaction of the people at this difficult time of life as not everyone reacts the same in such a harsh atmosphere."

Freely download "The Plague", by Albert Camus, here:

- https://tu.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The_Plague.pdf

○

Highly recommended, excellent!

- https://freebooksmania.com/

"41 Things I Think I Know (2022 Revision)"

"41 Things I Think I Know (2022 Revision)"

by John Wilder

"This is a revamp of an older post from way back in 2017. Are these fundamental rules? No. But between when I first wrote them and today I didn’t see much I’d change, except item 22.

1. Tell the truth. This will have the beneficial added benefit of changing your behavior so you’re not ashamed of what you do. The whole truth. Even about that. And that. People might not like you, but they’ll respect you. Except for the thing about the cat. Keep that to yourself – no one will understand.

2. Showing up on time is important. It shows respect. It is also is easy to track, if you’re a boss wanting to get rid of people. Even if you do a great job, you’ll be the first to go if you show up late. I guess that’s changed since the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions – everyone has stopped Russian.

3. Don’t give up. Sometimes break-out success means ten years of study and effort and of not giving up. Even Johnny Depp succeeded, which proves that anyone can.

4. There are no friends like those formed in youth. When you’re ten, there are no pretenses. The cruel calculus of testosterone and estrogen has yet to set in. Greed is not an issue.

5. Be nice. Life is already really hard enough for many people. Don’t be their villain, unless it pays really well, and even then, the karma is . . . tough.

6. When you speak, or write, or think, you own the space between the words. You have the ability to turn your words into something amazing, since infinite possibility lies between one word and the next. This is the one most people will ignore, but one of my most powerful things that I found out for myself.

7. Don’t continually do things you hate, or things that make you feel like a failure. Putting yourself in situations like that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It also destroys your ability to naturally smell like musk and sandalwood.

8. Apologize. But only when you are wrong, which, if you regularly read this blog, is hardly ever. If you were not wrong, don’t apologize.

9. Be of value. If you don’t contribute, you’re part of the problem. Which problem? All of them.

10. Don’t make yourself into a victim. Almost everybody is where they are because of their choices. Own your choices, and own your outcomes. No one likes victims.

11. If you really are a victim? Act like you’re not. Because even if victimhood status is legit, see item 10. No one likes people who act like victims, even when they really are.

12. Opportunity is found where responsibility is neglected.

13. Solve someone else’s biggest problem: that’s the virtuous road to wealth. It’s also harder.

14. Remember, giving a gift creates a debt in the mind of the recipient. The larger the gift, the bigger the debt. And nobody likes someone they owe a lot of money to – giving large gifts can make people not like you.

15. If you don’t want to go to bed because you don’t want to get up tomorrow? Fix your life.

16. If you don’t want to get out of bed because you don’t want to live the day? Fix your life.

17. Have children and have them early. But only if you have a spouse. And can keep your spouse.

18. Cooking your own food is cheaper. And it gives time for conversation. Some of the best conversations occur around the barbeque grill and the deck late into the night.

19. Be tough when you have to be. To be kind when toughness is required results in tragedy.

20. A pleasure repeated too often becomes a punishment.

21. Beware of ignoring public opinion. Public opinion resulted in witch burning, the guillotine and Hula Hoops ®. You can be on the other side, but understand there may be consequences.

22. Don’t see conspiracy when simple laziness, plain stupidity, or normal greed would explain the situation just as well. Removed after living through 2019, 2020, 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.

23. Schools used to be run by school boards. Now they’re run by unions and lawsuits. None of these groups have the students in mind.

24. You don’t win ‘em all. Deal with it.

25. You are the sum of your experience, your intellect, your body, your surroundings, and the people you interact with. You also control your own change. So, get up. The you of today isn’t ready for tomorrow unless the you of today is changing to meet those challenges.

26. Betrayal of trust is an indication of character. Never trust someone who betrays you. Forgive? Perhaps. Trust again? Never.

27. Real personal changes don’t happen unless an emotional experience occurs. The bigger the change, the more significant the experience needed.

28. You have your shot. Would have and could have don’t exist. (Unless the Many Worlds Theory of quantum mechanics is correct, in which case all things happen, so have another beer.)

29. The best (and maybe only) way to win at gambling is to own the casino.

30. No matter how awesome your idea, it has no value unless you make it real. This takes risk, execution, and work. Which is a lot more difficult than talking about your wonderful idea.

31. Unless your boss is a good boss, being younger and smarter than him won’t impress him, it will make him jealous or fearful. Neither of those things are good.

32. Having a boss that makes less money than you is also not good. Envy is a powerful emotion.

33. Know the strengths and weaknesses of your (biological) parents. You’re not too much different than them. At best, you can avoid their weaknesses. At worst, you’ll follow every one of their downsides.

34. Tip well, if you can afford it. Waiting on tables is tough work. And if you do tip well? They’ll remember you and take care of you. It’s nice to show up and find the right bottle of wine waiting for you.

35. You’re not going to win the lottery. Unless it’s the one that Shirley Jackson wrote about. (LINK)

36. If you’re traveling in winter, travel on the top half of your gas tank. It doesn’t cost any more.

37. Keep your napkin in your lap while at the dinner table.

38. Always use deodorant. And if in doubt? Have a breath mint, too.

39. Keep in touch with people who have helped you, so you can help them. And because you’re a person.

40. If you have too much stuff, your stuff will own you. Except books. You can have as many of those as you want. And ammo.

41. The only way that you can know another person across centuries is to read what they’ve written. Have you written anything worthy of reading by your great-great grandchildren? No? Get to work.

42. You’re going to die, and we all die alone. Understand that the only person with you throughout your life is... you. Be prepared to keep yourself and those you love alive in any emergency you can imagine. Our time will come when it comes, but there’s no reason not to push it back as far as you can."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/